There are numerous standards for identifying products that are sold throughout the world, for example, products are assigned Universal Product Codes (UPC) and/or European Article Numbers (EAN). These numeric codes allow businesses to identify products and manufactures, maintain vast inventories, manage a wide variety of products under a similar system and many other functions. The UPC or EAN of the product is printed, labeled, etched, or otherwise attached to the product as a dataform.
Dataforms are any indicia that can be used to identify the product, for example, dataforms can be barcodes, two dimensional codes, marks on the product, labels, signatures, signs etc. Dataforms such as, for example, barcodes are comprised of a series of light and dark rectangular areas of different widths. The light and dark areas can be arranged to represent the numbers of a UPC. Additionally, dataforms are not limited to products. They can be used to identify people, places, etc.
Some dataforms are more challenging to decode than others. The dataform may have become damaged during transport, or the dataform may be noisy because of dirt. Other challenging codes include super truncated barcodes, which are barcode that are very short in the vertical direction. Truncated codes are used on objects that are long and flat, for example, a pencil. Additionally, there are dataforms that encode information in two dimensions. Challenging dataforms can also comprise signatures or images.
Scanners that can decode the dataforms, such as for example, barcode scanners, have become very common. One category of scanner is a fast swipe scanner. These scanners can decode dataforms such as barcodes that are swiped past their readers at speeds of 50 inches per second. Fast swipe scanners have traditionally focused on laser technology, but image scanners can also be used in a fast swipe configuration.
Known fast swipe image scanners can process dataforms that pass their readers at 50 inches per second, but in order to process the codes quickly, a simple signal processing algorithm is used. Simple signal processing algorithms can effectively decode clear, one dimensional barcodes, but they may not be able to read challenging dataforms such as noisy codes, damaged codes, truncated codes, two-dimensional codes, signatures, images, etc. Thus, a traditional fast swipe image scanner equipped with a quickly processing algorithm cannot be used to read challenging codes. There are more sophisticated algorithms that can process challenging codes, but they require more time or an extremely powerful computer to complete. Since dataforms are moving quickly past the swipe scanner there may not be enough time to use a sophisticated algorithm.
Sometimes a dataform is moved at a slower speed past the swipe scanner. In these situations, there is enough time to use a sophisticated algorithm to decode the challenging dataform. Unfortunately known fast swipe image scanners, equipped with a simple signal processing algorithm, cannot take advantage of the extra time and do not decode the challenging dataform. Accordingly, a need exists for swipe scanners that can decode a wider range of dataforms by dynamically processing the dataforms.